NASCAR rail: Crown Royal Dan Lowry 400 at a glance

Tuesday

A look at last week's action and this coming week's race in Richmond, Va.

WHERE: Richmond International Raceway, Richmond, Va.

WHEN: TV start 7 p.m. ET

BROADCAST: Fox, live on Sirius satellite radio, channel 128

THE LOWDOWN: Richmond might be the best of both worlds. Phrases like "the short track that thinks it's a superspeedway" are often overused, but it has never been a more accurate description. The banking and shape of Richmond make it look like one of the "cookie-cutter" tracks from the air, and it races like one with side-by-side competition. At only three-quarters of a mile in length, however, it's a short track on which the battles for position are always close at hand. It's a welcome relief for drivers after last week's wild card lottery at Talladega.

It's amazing that NASCAR pays points for a race at Talladega SuperSpeedway or Daytona International Speedway — tracks on which the roll of a dice and the whim of fate overwhelmingly dictate the outcome. In racing, it pays to be lucky and good, and Busch is both. In fact, he is probably the most well-rounded driver in the field at the moment, with four victories in recent weeks coming on a similarly configured 1.5-mile track (Texas), a flat track (Phoenix), a road course (Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez) and now a superspeedway. The plate tracks were the last piece of the puzzle for this Young Gun, and this is his year to shine.

1. Jeff Burton
Three-year average finish at Richmond: 19.8 in six starts

Burton has scored only a single top-10 at Richmond in the last four years, but that hardly seems important in light of his current 15-race streak of top-15s. Do you want to bet he gets another this week?

2. Kyle Busch
Three-year average finish at Richmond: 6.2 in six starts

Until last fall, Busch had never finished worse than fifth in five previous Richmond starts. He's yet to win on this course, however, and he'd like to add a short track to his current streak of victories.

3. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Three-year average finish at Richmond: 15.8 in six starts

Earnhardt won at Richmond in 2000, 2004 and 2006 — all in the spring race — but since then, he's finished outside the top 10 in three consecutive tries. This week is another great opportunity for his first HMS win.

4. Denny Hamlin
Three-year average finish at Richmond: 6.5 in four starts

Thomas Wolfe was wrong: You can go home again, and Hamlin proved as much with his victory at Martinsville a few weeks ago. Richmond is even closer to his hometown, and he wants this one as badly.

5. Jimmie Johnson
Three-year average finish at Richmond: 17.0 in six starts

Johnson swept both races at Richmond last year, and this is a track on which a driver can control his own fate. Of course, nine of his first 10 races on this 0.75-mile superspeedway ended in results outside the top 10.

6. Kevin Harvick
Three-year average finish at Richmond: 5.5 in six starts

Harvick has the best three-year average finish among all active drivers, and his six-race top-10 streak includes a victory in fall 2006. Last year, he finished seventh in both races.

7. Clint Bowyer
Three-year average finish at Richmond: 10.8 in four starts

Don't look for a major shuffle at the top of the standings, because the drivers second through seventh have been consistent and good. Bowyer has finished between ninth and 12th in every Richmond race.

8. Greg Biffle
Three-year average finish at Richmond: 12.8 in six starts

It's hard to tell what starts a streak and drivers rarely know why they end. Until last spring, Biffle had a five-race top-10 streak to his credit at Richmond but went home 19th and 39th in 2007's contests.

9. Tony Stewart
Three-year average finish at Richmond: 7.2 in six starts

One wouldn't imagine you could run out of room on a 2.66-mile track, but after pacing the field for most of the day at 'Dega, that is precisely what happened to Stewart in the closing laps of the Aaron's 499.

10. Carl Edwards
Three-year average finish at Richmond: 23.0 in six starts

Edwards has crashed in half of his last six races at Talladega, and Richmond may not offer much relief. He qualifies well on this track but has only earned two top-10s in seven career starts.

11. Ryan Newman
Three-year average finish at Richmond: 10.0 in six starts

Newman is generally a better short-track racer than he's credited, and Richmond is a big part of the reason why. As a rookie, he finished second twice and won in his sophomore season.

12. Juan Montoya
Three-year average finish at Richmond: 33.5 in two starts

Montoya leapt into the top 12 last week with his second-place finish. That was not only his first top-five of the season, it was his first top-10, but he had a seven-race top-20 steak to keep him in contention.